This round of the Intermediate practice will engage the practice of recognizing energies as they arise and as they present through out one’s day. In truth, energy has always been a core facet of the Intermediate practice. Yet, becoming ever more clear about all being energy empowers one’s clarity in meditation and refines one’s livingness with the world.
All is energy:
- emotions, thoughts, conceptualizations, people, places, things,
- passion, desire, commitment, aspiration,
- anger, lust, prejudice, hatred, avoidance, preference, care, and inspired creativity.
- The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the animals we love, all are pure energy.
In order to recognize energy as it is manifesting in any given moment, there must first be the space for such recognition. Shamatha is the practice that creates that space inside. Shamatha is also the ground of Awareness.
With this, the inseparability of on-the-cushion and off-the-cushion is vital to understand and live. Shamatha –peace, ease, and a tranquil state of emotions and mind– on the cushion requires shamatha off the cushion. In other words, living from chasing after distractions and cravings, avoiding responsibilities, and generally living from reactiveness will not provide the peace of mind necessary for a settled state when meditating.
Equally so, the inspiration that comes from a pregnant pause produces ease, tranquility, empathy, generosity, creative inventiveness, insight, and peace within one’s mind, emotions, and in the shared space of one’s existence. Therefore, through increasingly recognizing all aspects of existence as energy, one begins to free oneself into the radiance of such energies rather than being limited by an ignorance of their power.
Shamatha always leads to vipasyana. Vipasyana is the experience of recognition.